The Norwegian Union of Social Educators and Social Workers (FO) is a voluntary professional association and a trade union.

The Association recruits:

• Social Workers (sosionomer)
• Child Care Workers (barnevernspedagoger)
• Social Educators (vernepleiere)
• Welfare Officers (velferdsarbeidere)

Members of these professions have at least post-graduate education at bachelor level. We are also accepting students to the professions as members.

The three organizations were merged in November 1992. The new union was active from January 1993, and is part of the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (Landsorganisasjonen (LO)).

The unions that were merged were:

• Norsk barnevernpedagogforbund (NBF)
• Norsk sosionomforbund (NOSO)
• Norsk vernepleierforbund (NVF)

At the time of the merger, the three associations had a total of 8,455 members. Since then, it has risen steadily, and to date FO has 37,000 members.

Most of the members of FO work in the public sector. Of these, the majority are employed by the municipalities; in Social Services, Child Care, Rehabilitation and Home-based Care. Also, a significant number of members are state employees, working in Hospitals, Psychiatric institutions, Child Care Institutions etc.

FO also has a growing number of members in private institutions and NGOs.

Being both a professional association and a trade union, our activities varies from:

• wage negotiations and work-place activities
• lobbying on matters concerning social policy
• activities to promote professional social work and social education

The highest body of FO is the National Meeting, held every fourth year and comprising delegates from the 12 branches, student delegates and the outgoing national leadership. Governing documents such as program of principles and articles of association are adopted.

The National Board represents all the departments in FO and is the highest body between National Meetings.

FO is one of the largest member associations in the Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO).